Inside Frequency Control

Is your electronics lab in need of an upgrade? It's important to keep your equipment up to date with the latest and greatest technology to keep getting the best results (and therefore a more effective product). In this post, we're going to look at 6 spectrum analyzers that will work great in your lab.

Go into any electronics lab and you will undoubtably see a bench top multimeter. The humble bench-top multimeter is a staple of any lane and is one of the most fundamental and highly used pieces of test equipment for electronic design.

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Back in 2016, we wrote one of our most popular posts covering 12 popular Software Defined Radios or SDRs. While the previous post still holds some extremely valuable information, a lot has changed in 3 years... especially the technology related to SDRs. So we thought it was time for an update.

Since the beginning of NASA, radio communication has been the go-to method of communication for spacecrafts. Well, that's about to change. NASA has recently announced they will be making a major change to some of their upcoming communication systems by implementing new, cutting-edge, laser communication technology.

So much of what defines our modern lives is made possible through radio wave technology, which has changed the world in ways the first researchers could never have anticipated. But where did anyone get the idea that radio waves existed in the first place, and that they could be harnessed for wireless communication? It’s a fascinating story that continues to unfold to this day. Let’s go back to the beginning to understand how this technology has evolved.

The international space station (ISS) is traveling in orbit around our earth at about 217 Miles (350 km) above earth’s surface. That’s equal to about 1,148,294 feet (yes, over 1 MILLION feet) or 350,000 meters above you. Those are some crazy heights! The ISS and other satellite communication devices must be able to cover a ton of earth’s surface from there, right?

Does your application require a super stable frequency source? How about the ability of the frequency source to be fine-tuned? Sounds like a Voltage Controlled Crystal Oscillators (VCXO) may be a great choice for your specific needs! By using a crystal oscillator as the basis of the circuit in a VCXO, high levels of frequency stability and low levels of phase noise can be maintained while still being able to control the frequency over a small range.